Even on the day my body vanishes, this love won't disappearEven the flowers will wither away, but this feeling will last long enough to take the place of 'eternity'

One thousand years of tears will drench my heart No matter how many times I'm reborn... until I can meet you again

Before I awaken from this fantasy, you wave to meIn the real world, morning comes and for an instant in time, I understandOne thousand years of wishes soar in the skyIt's alright if they never come true, as long as I can meet you

On a journey far away, I wander alone in the gentle breezeThe rain that falls on the withered flowers conceals the sadnessEven with a thousand years of love (a thousand years), I can't fully express my feelings for you (I can't)When the moon can't be seen in the night sky, I'll be able to meet you

One thousand years of feelings, living on in a songSo that someday, when I'm reborn, I'll be able to meet you

I'd just like to note that I haven't seen the Korean movie this song was originally the theme for (or well, the Korean version of the song that is). From what I can gather, it seems to be a period piece and I feel like the song would probably make more sense if I had that as context. So, as usual this is all my interpretation and if anyone who's seen the movie has any insight (or even if you haven't), feel free to let me know ^_^ Sorry there are so many of them this time!

While the first line is pretty much literal, I would like to note that the word 'omoi' can be translated quite a few ways, and I just chose 'love' in this case. It can also be 'feeling,' and I use that in the second line (despite the word itself not actually being spoken there, I felt it was assumed). The 2nd half of the 2nd line was rather... interesting XD More literally, I guess it would translate as 'it will succeed/inherit the existence of eternity.' The verb here is usually used for inheriting something down family lines or succeeding a business but when I looked at the definition in Japanese, one of them basically said 'In order to prevent something from going extinct, something else will come in and continue in its place.' So, the feeling that I got here was that this love/feeling is so strong and enduring that it will last so long as to outlast eternity, thereby coming to encapsulate eternity itself. Since it would be impossible to last longer than eternity (as eternity is forever-lasting), this line just re-enforces how strong this love is.

More literally, this line would be 'one thousand years of tears course down/follow my heart' as 'tsutau' is usually used with cheek and would be more along the lines of 'tears streamed down.' Maybe it was just my state of mind at the time I translated but 'tears course/stream down over my heart' just sounded awkward in English. So, even though 'drench' isn't actually used here, I felt it got the idea across and sounded better English wise ^^;;

The majority of this verse is an interpretation verses a translation. In the first line, the word 'monogatari' (story) is used, followed by 'yume no hate' (end of the/a dream). If it they had flipped 'story' and 'dream' and put 'yume monogatari no hate' it would be 'the end of a fantasy,' or something along those lines. I really didn't know what to make of this word choice, so I assumed they meant some sort of dreamed up fantasy. I also just chopped the 'end of' part because if you wake from a dream, that would be the end of it. The second line would more literally be 'on the other side, light comes' but I thought the idea was that the other side was reality and the morning sun pulling him away from his dreamworld where (she) exists. The third line is pretty much literal, but the first part of the final line would more literally be 'it's alright if they all burn out.' The idea is that they vanish away, but I felt saying wishes 'burn out' just seemed a bit 'o.O wha?' in English, so I took some creative license and just chose to say 'never come true.'

Even though the song lyrics themselves didn't use parentheses to denote the parts sung in the background, I chose to include them because I felt they emphasized the feelings in the line, Technically the parts in parentheses would be 'love' and 'can't' but for the echo to work in English, I felt the first part would need to be a re-emphasis of the length of the love, verses the love being there itself, so I interpreted accordingly. The final line would literally be 'when the moon sleeps at night, I'll be able to meet you' but I felt this perhaps needed a bit of tweaking for an English speaking audience. The impression that I got was how impossible it seems for these lovers (perhaps?) to meet. The idea of the moon sleeping at night seems preposterous because that's what it does during the day, so I think the idea here is that (his) hope here is rather impossible. I chose to interpret it more like 'when the moon doesn't appear in the night sky' to get that across in English, but hopefully it worked ^^;;;

Finally, the last verse. Once again, the verb 'tsugu' (to succeed) made an appearance but this time in a form that would translate to something along the lines of 'to be succeeded'. I felt the idea here was that his feelings were being continued in this song, so I chose to translate it as 'live on' because of that. ^^

10 comments:

Hello...! thanks for this..i love it...oooh BTW i know this may sound rude but i was looking for Towani lyrics+translation...i just saw the aired perf. with the Gospellers....if u dont kinda mind can u please translate the song...coz it really felt heatwarming an i just want to know...thanks a million, ur site is great!